SCRIPT: The Traitor 4/05
April 27, 2005 — -- The story we're telling you tonight has all the elements of a very good, if complicated, movie: espionage, weapons sales to a terrorist state, high living, double and ultimately triple-crossing, several murder plots. And at the center of it all, an American who claims to have been a CIA agent and who parlayed that and his contacts around the world into a number of international deals, all of which made him a very rich man. Edwin P. Wilson had once been worth an estimated $23 million.
When government prosecutors finally did go after him in the early 1980s, they came at him from all sides. Four sets of charges, four trials. In Washington, he was charged with soliciting some Cuban hitmen to kill a Libyan dissident. He was acquitted in that trial. However, he was convicted in Virginia of illegally exporting an M-16 rifle and four pistols, including one that was used to kill a Libyan dissident in Bonn. Different dissident. And Wilson was sentenced to 15 years, ultimately reduced to 10. In New York, Wilson was charged with hiring a convicted murderer to kill two prosecutors, six of the witnesses against him, and his wife, who had filed for divorce. In that case, he was also convicted and sentenced to 25 years. But all of that is merely window dressing to what is at the heart of our story tonight. The charge that Wilson was a traitor and a merchant of death, who had sold more than 40,000 pounds of C-4 explosives to Libya. Wilson never denied it. He claimed, however, that he'd been working for the CIA when he did it. Knowing what I just told you about Ed Wilson, would you believe him? Neither did the jury. He was sentenced to 17 more years in prison. But as ABC's Chief Investigative Correspondent Brian Ross now reports, Wilson was telling the truth. The government was lying.
BRIAN ROSS, ABC NEWS
Ed Wilson is a free man now. Telling his story 22 years after he was sent to prison. Labeled a traitor and a threat to America.
EDWARD WILSON, ALLEGED TRAITOR
That was me, the most-dangerous man in America, which is ridiculous.
BRIAN ROSS
It did not seem so ridiculous at the time. 1983. The Justice Department threw the book at Wilson. He was called a merchant of death, convicted of selling weapons and 20 tons of C-4 plastic explosives to Moammar Gadhafi's Libya. He was later convicted of trying to arrange a contract hit on the prosecutors. Wilson's downfall was a big story. Gadhafi and Libya were seen as the leading terrorist state then, much as Saddam Hussein and Iraq would be portrayed 20 years later.
EUGENE KAPLAN, FORMER ASSISTANT US ATTORNEY
Ed Wilson was a very cold-blooded, very ruthless, very greedy man.
BRIAN ROSS
At trial, Wilson admitted selling the explosives and keeping the money. But his defense was that he was still working with the CIA and that the agency knew and approved of everything he was doing with Libya, including the shipment of the explosives. The CIA would not disclose its records, but did provide this affidavit in the final days of the trial from a top CIA official with one minor exception. The CIA official said Wilson was not asked or requested to perform or provide any services directly or indirectly for CIA.
DAVID ADLER, DEFENSE ATTORNEY
It was read into evidence during trial. The jury went back to deliberate.
BRIAN ROSS
The linchpin of the government's case, according to Wilson's lawyer now, David Adler.
DAVID ADLER
After a short time of deliberations, the jurors asked to hear this affidavit again. It was reread to them. And an hour later, they voted guilty on all counts for Mr. Wilson. So I think it was critical to the jury's decision.
BRIAN ROSS
Prosecutor Ted Greenberg says Wilson was making up his connection to the CIA.
TED GREENBERG, PROSECUTOR
Mr. Wilson did not work for the CIA or any other part of the intelligence community.
BRIAN ROSS
But that simply was not true, despite what the CIA's sworn affidavit said.
BRIAN ROSS
And now, some 20 years later, what do you know about that affidavit?
DAVID ADLER
Not true. It's bogus. They knew it wasn't true and decided to use it, regardless of the consequences.
BRIAN ROSS
But it would take 20 years for Wilson and his lawyer to prove that. In February of 1983, at the age of 54, Wilson was sentenced to 52 years in prison, expected to die there.
EDWARD WILSON
The sentence was life. You know, 52 years.
BRIAN ROSS
You thought you were dead?
EDWARD WILSON
Yeah. I thought I was gone, yeah.
BRIAN ROSS
He was first sent to solitary confinement at the high security federal penitentiary in Marion, Illinois.
EDWARD WILSON
At the time, it had replaced Alcatraz. We were locked down 23, 24 hours a day in a little cell.
BRIAN ROSS
For how long?
EDWARD WILSON
For 10 years, 10 years straight. I had a room next, about 20 feet away from the cell, which was 18 by 30. And I would walk 15 minutes one way and do 40 push-ups. Walk 15 minutes the other way and do 40 push-ups. Do this everyday for at least two or three hours. Do 200 or 300 push-ups. And that's what kept my sanity.
BRIAN ROSS
Did you give up at some point?
EDWARD WILSON
Oh, no. You can't give up because at the time, I knew, I knew I was innocent of this thing. I took it, and I said, I'll have my day someday.
BRIAN ROSS
From his cell in Marion, Wilson began to seek government documents, using the Freedom of Information Act. It took 14 years for the government to turn over this internal Justice Department memo, buried in a large stack of other documents.
EDWARD WILSON
This was the smoking gun here.
BRIAN ROSS
In the document, written just five days after the verdict, Justice Department officials acknowledged the CIA affidavit was possibly false and discussed what to do about it.
DAVID ADLER
The subject line of the memo is entitled, "Duty to Disclose Possibly False Testimony." And somebody had hand-written on top of the document that the plain meaning of the word "services" in the affidavit is inaccurate.
BRIAN ROSS
But the Justice Department decided to keep the information secret.
BRIAN ROSS
And this document was not turned over to Wilson's lawyers at the time?
DAVID ADLER
Absolutely not.
BRIAN ROSS
What do you think happened here?
DAVID ADLER
Somebody slipped up and, and never intended for Mr. Wilson to see this document. I think they forgot that if you put someone in solitary confinement or in prison that they don't have a lot to do all day other than to pore through these documents. And I think Mr. Wilson paid a lot more attention to the materials than the people who were responsible for releasing them at the Justice Department.
BRIAN ROSS
It was that one document which led to Adler's appointment by a federal judge in Houston to help Wilson pursue his case, an assignment for which Adler had unique qualifications.
DAVID ADLER
I'm a former CIA officer. I remembered the case from when I was in high school. I remembered Wilson's name being brought up when I was going through training at the agency.
BRIAN ROSS
Were you skeptical?
DAVID ADLER
Very. Very. I'm just not a big believer in intentional government conspiracies. Mr. Wilson was claiming this was an intentional effort. So, I was skeptical, yes.
BRIAN ROSS
Since then, Adler has discovered dozens of Justice Department and CIA documents that he says prove the key affidavit in the Wilson case was false and that many in the government knew it.
DAVID ADLER
I'm not skeptical anymore. I think the documents are about as clear as they could be that this was an intentional, purposeful effort to conceal the truth from the judge, from the jury, from Mr. Wilson and his defense lawyers, and, and from the public.
BRIAN ROSS
A federal judge has now overturned Wilson's Houston conviction, saying "the government knowingly used false evidence against him." And the judge has identified about two dozen government lawyers who actively participated in failing to disclose the false evidence. Many who went on to become some of the most prominent men in legal circles today. Their actions, 22 years ago, in the case of Ed Wilson, are finally coming to light.
(Commercial Break)
BRIAN ROSS
The conviction of Ed Wilson was a big victory for the Justice Department.
DAVID ADLER
Many careers were greatly enhanced by the successful prosecution of Mr. Wilson back in 1983.
BRIAN ROSS
Justice Department officials Steven Trot and Lowell Jenson were later appointed federal judges as was the CIA General Counsel then, Stanley Sporkin. Prosecutor Ted Greenberg is now senior counsel at the World Bank. Prosecutor Larry Barcella became one of Washington's top criminal defense lawyers and served as an independent counsel investigating corruption in government.
DAVID ADLER
I think I've uncovered something that, at the very least, should question whether or not they deserve to have those types of positions.
BRIAN ROSS
They are among the two dozen government officials that Federal Judge Lynn Hughes has accused of keeping quiet about the false CIA affidavit that sent Ed Wilson to prison. The judge would not agree to be interviewed, but he did allow us to take these pictures in his courtroom. And the words in his ruling overturning Wilson's conviction are unusually strong. "The falsity comes from high public officials with sole access to voluminous records, not some high school dropout, street level drug dealer with a memory of one sale," wrote Judge Hughes. "In the course of American justice, one would have to work hard to conceive of a more fundamentally unfair process than the fabrication of false data by the government, under oath by a government official, presented knowingly by the prosecutor in the courtroom, with the express approval of his superiors in Washington."
DAVID ADLER
I think it would be upsetting to any judge to learn that this type of activity occurred in their courtroom. And a decision was made by some very learned and very experienced people to sweep it under the rug.
BRIAN ROSS
The CIA affidavit presented in court claimed there was, at most, one contact between Wilson and the CIA after he left the agency.
DAVID ADLER
I'd found a document in which the agency's best effort at the time revealed at least 80 different instances of Mr. Wilson providing services to the CIA.
BRIAN ROSS
"Instead of a witness whom Wilson could examine before the jury," the judge wrote, "Wilson was contradicted by a dishonest agency memorandum issued from a bunker in Virginia."
WALLY SISK, FORMER JURY FOREMAN
I can tell you that I feel used, as a, as a jury member.
BRIAN ROSS
Wally Sisk, the foreman of the jury that convicted Wilson in Houston, was stunned to learn that the CIA affidavit turned out to be false.
WALLY SISK
If we had known that, I could say unequivocally that, that there would not have been a guilty verdict because that would have taken away the whole case of the prosecution. And to sway a jury to vote in favor of the government, using those type of tactics, it's unbelievable to me.
BRIAN ROSS
The judge in his ruling points the finger directly at the prosecutor, Ted Greenberg, who he says ignored warnings from the CIA's top lawyer, Stanley Sporkin, that the affidavit should not be used. "Deliberately, knowing the facts, Greenberg ignored the CIA attorneys' requests and used it," wrote the judge.
DAVID ADLER
I think that's probably the worst example of, of the government's behavior in this case. There is just no legitimate explanation for using the affidavit at that point, in my opinion.
BRIAN ROSS
Would you call it a criminal act?
DAVID ADLER
I think it probably meets the definition of a, of a criminal act. I think it was an intentional effort to deceive the court.
BRIAN ROSS
In a statement to "Nightline," Greenberg says he was never warned by the CIA that the affidavit was false, that their concerns were about tactics. Greenberg said he would never file "with the court an affidavit or other document, which I knew to be inaccurate or false." The supervising prosecutor on the case, Larry Barcella, says he cannot recall seeing the affidavit before it was introduced but denies doing anything improper when the issue was raised later.
DAVID ADLER
Barcella participated in the meetings when it was discussed that something might have to be corrected about the affidavit.
BRIAN ROSS
And did not do that?
DAVID ADLER
As far as I know, he did not.
BRIAN ROSS
Wilson has filed complaints with the Washington, DC Bar Association against Barcella.
EDWARD WILSON
Evil. That's the word I like.
BRIAN ROSS
Both of the prosecutors you would call evil?
EDWARD WILSON
Evil, right. They were not doing their job. They were doing it for themselves. Once they got me convicted, then they had to cover this thing up constantly. And they wanted to make sure that I would never get out of prison.
BRIAN ROSS
After the guilty verdict, the CIA General Counsel, Sporkin, again raised a red flag, according to one of the documents Adler and Wilson discovered.
DAVID ADLER
The CIA drafted up a letter that the agency proposed be sent to Wilson's attorneys, disclosing the problem with the affidavit. And again, the Justice Department rejected the CIA's suggestion that the letter be sent to Mr. Wilson's lawyer. And so, it was never disclosed at that juncture, either.
BRIAN ROSS
Lowell Jenson, now a federal judge, was in charge of the criminal division of the Justice Department when the decision was first made. He declined to comment on his role in the Wilson case.
DAVID ADLER
I found a fair number of memos that were addressed to him or from him, talking about the problem, talking about the decision to keep quiet about this.
BRIAN ROSS
Adler also says that Steven Trot, now a federal appeals court judge, became aware of the issue when he took over as head of the criminal division at the Justice Department. Judge Trot says he recalls a meeting on the Wilson case but none of the details.
DAVID ADLER
He was aware of the problem and made a decision to keep quiet about it.
BRIAN ROSS
How could it be that so many people decided to put so much on the line?
DAVID ADLER
Frankly, I don't know.
BRIAN ROSS
Just because of Ed Wilson?
DAVID ADLER
I don't know other than there was tremendous media pressure on the government, quite the media circus. And there just was a lot of pressure on the Justice Department and on the agency to get Mr. Wilson's scalp.
BRIAN ROSS
Judge Hughes put it this way, "America will not defeat Libyan terrorism by double-crossing a part-time, informal government agent."
EDWARD WILSON
Judge Hughes is terrific, really terrific. And instead of covering this thing up like all the rest of the judges did and the prosecutors, he said, "No, no, let's bring it out in the open."
BRIAN ROSS
Wilson says he lost all he had, his family and his wealth over the 22 years he was in prison. Now living with his brother in Seattle, Wilson says he wants to clear his name and prove he was not a traitor to his country.
BRIAN ROSS
Has anybody called you, written you and apologized about what happened in this case?
EDWARD WILSON
Oh, no. Not at all.
BRIAN ROSS
None of the prosecutors?
EDWARD WILSON
Not a prosecutor. Not a CIA guy. Nobody. Apologized? That would be admitting. See, when you apologize, you admit something.
BRIAN ROSS
Nobody's done that?
EDWARD WILSON
No, not at all. They're all covering up.
BRIAN ROSS
The Justice Department has now admitted the affidavit used to convict Wilson was false. An innocent error, their lawyers told the judge. As for the CIA, it admits nothing and says only it was Mr. Wilson's decision to sell explosives to Libya, and that's why he was sent to jail.
BRIAN ROSS
Do you have any hard feelings about the CIA?
EDWARD WILSON
No. Not at all.
BRIAN ROSS
Not at all?
EDWARD WILSON
Not at all. In fact, I have a great admiration for the people in the agency. And I, I wish I was still involved with them.
BRIAN ROSS
To this day?
EDWARD WILSON
To this day. If they asked me tomorrow to go back overseas for them, I'd go.